House GOP leaders and Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., Friday signed off on an accelerated schedule for completing all 13 appropriations bills before the August recess, and within the $538 billion total spending cap.
With three fiscal 2000 bills cleared by the House-Agriculture, Legislative Branch and Transportation -and none expected on the floor before the July 4 break, appropriators are looking at a hectic July. The Military Construction and Interior bills will be marked up in subcommittee and full committee next week.
The committee also hopes to hold its long-stalled markup of the Treasury-Postal bill before the July 4 recess, but must first work through several problems with that bill, including the potential that Democrats will reopen the gun control debate, rumblings from conservatives about blocking members' automatic cost-of-living increase, and keeping the bill to the fiscal 1999 spending level when IRS reform legislation has increased its cost over last year.
Those three bills should be on the floor when Congress returns from the July 4 recess. The second group of bills to hit the floor will be the Defense, Foreign Operations, Energy and Water, and Labor-HHS measures, with the Commerce- Justice-State, VA-HUD and District of Columbia bills bringing up the rear.
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